Exhibition Tips
prepared by Suzanna Mace

Exhibitions are one of the most powerful, versatile and cost-effective marketing tools available.

Practical Points to Consider *

• Clothing - Comfort and layers.

• Liquid – the H2O version!

• Try to Take a break – get a family member or friend to cover you for an hour or so.

Planning for success

Be Realistic About Your Expectations

Exhibitions generate millions of euros worth of business every year – but it is unusual for exhibitors to do so during the event. For most companies, the orders will come in the weeks and months after the show. You must be prepared to pursue your leads vigorously, and to track them on an on-going basis, so that they can trace as many sales as possible back to source.

Exhibitions Require Time and Effort

Don’t underestimate the amount of planning and preparation required to exhibit successfully. Effective planning and follow-up can mean the difference between a bad show experience and a good one. But it can also mean the difference between a good show, and a truly exceptional one.

Publicise your presence

Prepare your press release(s) and catalogue entry and submit them by the deadline date. Mail out invitations to your prospects, giving them an incentive to visit your stand.

Co-ordinate media activities

Maximise your promotional budget by coordinating your exhibition promotions with other media activities. Drop a flash on your trade adverts saying ‘see us on stand XXX’, include invitations in direct mail, and publicise your participation in customer newsletters and on your web site.

Building media relations - Exhibitions offer a rare opportunity to meet and influence the press ‘en masse’ and to generate coverage on new products or services, and or company developments

Building customer loyalty – Regular contact with customers shows that you care and exhibitions are an extremely time and cost-efficient means of keeping in touch.

Consider the benefits

To make the most of your participation, you need to understand exactly what benefits exhibitions offer:

• Highly targeted - With their carefully focused profiles, and highly targeted audiences, exhibitions allow you to direct your sales and marketing effort accurately and cost-effectively, with minimum wastage.

• The buyer comes to you - Exhibition visitors are pro-active buyers. They make a conscious decision to attend, and set aside valuable time to do so. Many are specifiers and influencers who it might otherwise be impossible to identify.

• 3D sales & promotion – Nothing beats the impact of a live demonstration. At an exhibition, buyers can see, taste, touch and try your product for themselves.

• Face to face contact - The most persuasive form of selling, and of building customer relationships

• Neutral sales environment – The buyer feels under no great pressure to buy, while the seller is not intimidated by visiting the buyer on his home territory.

• Market research – Exhibitions bring together a complete cross-section of a market, making them ideal for customer research and offering instant feedback.

• Fast market penetration – You can reach a large proportion of the market in a short space of time, achieving more in a day than you might otherwise achieve in months.

• A powerful combination - Exhibitions combine the mass reach of advertising, the targeting of direct mail, the persuasive power of face-to-face selling, and the networking benefits of the Internet, to create a unique environment in which a wide range of sales and marketing objectives can be pursued, either singly, or side by side.

The essence of good stand design

Form should follow function

Before you consider what your stand will look like, you need to be clear about what you want it to DO for you.  What are you going to exhibit?

Movement excites interest

A moving exhibit is much more likely to attract the eye than a static one. If your product or service cannot be demonstrated, look at other ways of creating movement for example, through the use of light, audio-visual displays or rotating signs and display plinths.

Height increases visibility

The best-space only stands also call attention to themselves from a distance. Height needn’t be expensive - a simple column or pillar with your company name on can be extremely  effective. Use every design opportunity to attract their attention.

Say what you do

Don’t assume that everyone will know what you do from your company name alone. If you’re not a household name, or its not immediately obvious from your display what you can offer, use graphics to spell it out.

Promote benefits, not features

Exhibits should be presented as solutions to specific needs and problems. Don’t bury benefits in a long list of features. If your products are the fastest, quietest, most durable or economical on the market, say so.  Keep detailed technical data to hand in a brochure.

Keep your stand messages brief

Visitors are bombarded with information at exhibitions and can only take in so much. Where possible, stick to bold headlines and, if necessary, bullet points.

Ensure text can be easily read

Text should be placed at eye level or higher on the stand. Upper and lower case print is much easier to read than block capitals. If you do use longer text, stick to short sentences and paragraphs and use clear, well spaced type.

If it's new say so!

The word ‘new’ is one of the most powerful words in advertising. If you are exhibiting a product or service for the first time, label it accordingly on the stand for all to see.

Make Your Stand Look as Professional as Possible*.

Housekeeping means keeping your stand clean and tidy. Hand made signs just don´t cut it! Less is more. A cluttered stand will make you look like a market stall. Try it out at home – take photos and scrutinize the overall effect. Keep supplies out of sight as much as possible. If you are not selling a product try to have a foreground presence. Keep busy looking but not unapproachable. Sitting behind a stand reading a book will not entice customers.

Publicising your presence

Co-ordinate your activities carefully

Exhibitions should be treated as an integral part of your marketing effort not as isolated events on the marketing calendar. Use the event to re-inforce themes running in other media; put ‘see us at..’ flashes on existing advertising; promote your participation on your web site, and in customer newsletters.

Invite your customers and prospects

Recent research has shown that 83% of the most successful exhibitors (in terms of business generated and leads collected) had mailed their customers and prospects before the show. (Source: Center for Exhibition Industry Research). You can mail your own lists and include a ticket and a covering letter and/or incentive giving them particular reasons to visit your stand.

Following up after the show

Plan your follow-up before the show

Set a deadline for making initial contact, and a system for ensuring that ALL leads not just the hottest, are pursued to a conclusion.

Follow up immediately